Overview
- Bowhead whales show roughly 100‑fold higher levels of CIRBP than other mammals, according to University of Rochester scientists.
- Introducing bowhead CIRBP improved repair of DNA double‑strand breaks in human cell cultures and in fruit fly cells.
- Fruit flies with added CIRBP lived longer and exhibited increased resistance to irradiation in laboratory tests.
- Lowering temperature by a few degrees raised cellular CIRBP production, pointing to a cold‑response mechanism tied to the Arctic environment.
- Findings offer a potential route to explain whales’ low cancer incidence under Peto’s paradox, but researchers caution that lifestyle ideas or therapies remain speculative.